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The U.S. Supreme Court Limits Discovery Sanctions to Compensation, Not Punishment

By Neil Bloomfield

It is not every day the U.S. Supreme Court pays attention to matters that affect the practice of discovery, but that day came with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. v. Haeger, 137 S.Ct 1178 (April 18, 2017). Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Kagan explained that when a court exercises its inherent power to sanction bad-faith conduct by ordering a party to pay the other side’s legal fees, the award is limited to the fees that would not have been incurred but for the sanctioned party’s conduct.

The Court’s decision provides useful guidance, but leaves open interesting questions that litigants and district courts will be wrestling with for years to come.

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Technology Tips To Help You Organize Discovery and Exhibits Efficiently

By Alicia Mitchell-Mercer

It came to my attention recently that some of my fellow paralegals are still using the original Bates stamper.

I was told that some firms do not want to invest in the software which makes this whole Bates thing easier. If you have Adobe Professional at work, there’s already a built-in solution. If you are new to Adobe, click on “tools” on the right side of the screen and select “Bates Numbering” under “Edit Page Design.”

But, if your firm has limited means to purchase new software, here is a great option:

If you need to Bates number/stamp documents but do not have the software like Adobe Professional, you can download it from http://download.cnet.com/A-PDF-Number/3000-2079_4-10521918.html

It is free to download and it lets you put in prefixes and suffixes for your bates numbers, as well as offsetting numbers making it easy to start at page 1,532 or whatever when more discovery documents are added. There is no malware or ads or anything like that. It’s a safe program.

Also, a little-known fact is if you have a Brother printer at work, you can download a free driver and software from Nuance PDF Reader (albeit from the Brother website). It allows you to drag multiple documents into that platform and stack them in whatever order you like. There are many other great features. It’s awesome for discovery and organizing exhibits.

Oh, my! Why?

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